The following is a fascinating post from Matt Dimeo ( matt.dimeo@conexant.com ). NOTE: New England TechCord is stronger than the BW Spectra that Matt sent to Chris. --Karl
(Dylan, is this font size OK?)

Chris Harmston at Black Diamond showed his typical generosity and pull-tested some samples for me, so I'm passing on the results to add to the general knowledge base. First some background: some months back there was a rec.climbing discussion about Webolettes and their application. At the time, I brought up the possibility of making your own out of spectra cord with loops tied in the ends. This test was meant to check the feasibility of that. I figured that if I could tie a spectra-cord "webolette" with strength comparable to a 7mm nylon cordelette, I'd do so, preferring cord to webbing for self-rescue reasons. As it turns out (see results below), it's not even close. Nylon cord is stronger than I had remembered, for one thing, and having a single strand of cord cuts the strength nearly in half over a loop. I actually figured that out before I sent the samples off, but after I had already bought and cut the cord. This probably would have been obvious to many of you. I sent three samples each of the following configurations, and got these results: Configuration #1: spectra cord loop, tied with triple fisherman's (i.e. a normal cordellete) Samples all broke @pin, at 3717, 3467, and 4034 lbf. Configuration #2: 7mm Nylon cord loop tied with double fisherman's (cordelette) Samples all broke @pin, at 3286, 3605, and 3299 lbf. Configuration #3: spectra cord with figure eights tied at each end. Backup knots were used, but made no difference (they didn't come tight). This is the webolette configuration. Samples all broke @knot, at 1779, 1793, 1884 lbf. Configuration #4: As #3, but with a triple-fisherman loop in each end (see below). Broke at knot, at 1745, 1725, 1709 lbf. The knot tied in #4 was created by feeding a triple fisherman knot through itself. To tie it, start tying a 3-fish around a pencil, then feed the short end back through along the pencil, pull out the pencil, and tie the other half of the 3-fish. You end up with a small loop. Conclusions and observations: 1. nylon cordelletes didn't break much weaker than spectra, so if you use spectra cordelletes because you think they're stronger, you might be wasting your money. 2. The triple fisherman loop I sort-of invented didn't break any stronger than the figure eights. Actually a little weaker. all cord used was new. The spectra was 5.5mm blue water. The nylon was 7mm, don't know the manufacturor. The test rig used 10mm pins at 4"/minute. Send email if you have any questions about the above. Claimer and Disclaimer: Any mistakes above are mine, not Chris's, and not Black Diamond's. If you make safety decisions based on any of the above data, and your head pops off as a result, it's your own damn fault. -m@